PAGES:

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Booknotes II (May '14)

Part of Arcadia's Images of America series, Anderson's photograph and caption study of Ford's Theater traces the building's history from Baptist Church to theater (and Lincoln assassination site, of course) to commercial building and museum.

White's belief that too many scholars fail to delve deep enough into the mechanics and meaning of the soldier vote in the 1864 presidential election (78% for Lincoln) jives more than a little with my own reading. He argues that, in viewing the election result as representative of resounding approval by those in the ranks of Republican military and social war aims, historians have "ignored mitigating factors such as voter turnout, intimidation at the polls, and how soldiers voted in nonpresidential elections in 1864." I'm about halfway through the book already and from what I've read so far I highly recommend it.